Paul Broca's historic cases: high resolution MR imaging of the brains of Leborgne and Lelong
Abstract
In 1861, the French surgeon, Pierre Paul Broca, described two patients who had lost the ability to speak after injury to the posterior inferior frontal gyrus of the brain. Since that time, an infinite number of clinical and functional imaging studies have relied on this brain-behaviour relationship as their anchor for the localization of speech functions. Clinical studies of Broca's aphasia often assume that the deficits in these patients are due entirely to dysfunction in Broca's area, thereby attributing all aspects of the disorder to this one brain region. Moreover, functional imaging studies often rely on activation in Broca's area as verification that tasks have successfully tapped speech centres. Despite these strong assumptions, the range of locations ascribed to Broca's area varies broadly across studies. In addition, recent findings with language-impaired patients have suggested that other regions also play a role in speech production, some of which are medial to the area originally described by Broca on the lateral surface of the brain. Given the historical significance of Broca's original patients and the increasing reliance on Broca's area as a major speech centre, we thought it important to re-inspect these brains to determine the precise location of their lesions as well as other possible areas of damage. Here we describe the results of high resolution magnetic resonance imaging of the preserved brains of Broca's two historic patients. We found that both patients' lesions extended significantly into medial regions of the brain, in addition to the surface lesions observed by Broca. Results also indicate inconsistencies between the area originally identified by Broca and what is now called Broca's area, a finding with significant ramifications for both lesion and functional neuroimaging studies of this well-known brain area.
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It was not until 2007 that the full extent of the lesions incurred by Broca's two famous cases was revealed in an MRI study showing damage to multiple subcortical grey and white matter regions.
“It was not until 2007 that the full extent of the lesions incurred by Broca’s two famous cases (Broca, 1861a, b) was revealed in an MRI study showing damage to multiple subcortical grey and white matter regions (Dronkers et al., 2007)”
From Damage to Broca’s area does not contribute to long-term speech production outcome after stroke (2021) · cites this paper as Dronkers et al., 2007
The lesion sites observed in Paul Broca's two historic cases (Leborgne and Lelong) involved other cortical and subcortical areas neighbouring the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus, including the white matter underlying BA44 and BA45.
“the lesion sites observed in Paul Broca’s two historic cases (Leborgne and Lelong) involved other cortical and subcortical areas neighbouring the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus, including the white matter underlying BA44 and BA45 (Dronkers et al., 2007).”
From Damage to Broca’s area does not contribute to long-term speech production outcome after stroke (2021) · cites this paper as Dronkers et al., 2007
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- Authors
- Dronkers, N. F., Plaisant, O., Iba-Zizen, M. T., & Cabanis, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Centre hospitalier national d'ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts (FR)
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-04-02
- Volume
- 130
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1432-1441
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- OpenAlex
- W2161176803
- Cited by
- 520
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 6.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC00216, R01DC000216)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS040813, P01NS040813)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurology and Historical Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anatomy › Medical and Biological Sciences
- Keywords
- Broca's aphasia, Broca's area, posterior inferior frontal gyrus, speech production, lesion localization, functional neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Aphasia, Broca, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Tissue Preservation, Verbal Behavior
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